Discursions in Time: Slow and Poetic Cinema(s) — A Guided Film Club

“Slow cinema” first entered filmic discourse in 2003 at the 46th San Francisco International Film Festival when French film critic and editor of the film magazine Positif, pointed his finger at a counter-cultural trend he observed coming largely outside of Hollywood and other studio systems. “Facing this lack of patience and themselves made impatient by the bombardment of sound and image to which they are submitted as TV or cinema spectators,” he announced, “a number of directors have reacted by a cinema of slowness, of contemplation, as if they wanted to live again the sensuous experience of a moment revealed in its authenticity” (emphasis added). These films were “antidotes” to the image bombardment of the mainstream.

Different critics, academics, and filmmakers will define things differently, but virtually any definition of slow cinema you can find will agree that these films have a different relationship with time than mainstream cinema.

In this guided film club, we will explore the world of slow cinema(s) from the Lumière brothers through the early 2020s. We will hold each other accountable as we finally work through mammoth runtimes on films like Lav Diaz’s Evolution of a Filipino Family (10 hours and 43 minutes). We will learn together and from each other about diverse cinema traditions and filmmakers. And we will even debate whether or not there even is even an identifiable movement or aesthetic that we can accurately call “slow cinema.”

Each meeting will have recommended (not required) short readings, optional viewings, and required viewings. All films will be reasonably accessible to view from home at free or low costs. Each group meeting will be scheduled for 90 minutes over Zoom.

All scheduled viewings are subject to alteration with club interest and changes to availability.

Meeting 1: Short(s) Introductions (March 8 at 7pm EST)

The Execution of Joan of Arc (1898) by Louis Lumière
At Land (1944) directed by Maya Deren
White Bells (1961) directed by Ivars Kraulītis
Berlin Horse (1970) directed by Malcolm Le Grice
Journey to the West (2014) directed by Tsai Ming-liang
Father and Sons (2014) directed by Wang Bing
MCI-LAX (2023) directed by Jane Evelyn & Elaine Fuentes

Optional viewing for cinemaholics: A Man Escaped (1956, directed by Robert Bresson); Prologue to the Great Desaparecido (2013, directed by Lav Diaz)

Meeting 2: Memory, Boredom, and Longing (March 22nd at 7pm EST)

News From Home (1979) directed by Chantal Akerman

The Turin Horse (2011) directed by Béla Tarr

Optional viewing for cinemaholics: Seven Songs from the Tundra (2000, directed by Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio)

Meeting 3: Experimental Aesthetics (April 6th at 7pm EST)

Oxhide (2005) directed by Liu Jiayin
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023) directed by Anna Hints

Optional viewing for cinemaholics: Wavelength (1967, directed by Michael Snow); Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972, directed by Jonas Mekas)

Meeting 4: Baltic Poetic Documentary (April 19th at 7pm EST)

235 000 000 (1967) directed by Uldis Brauns
A Life (1972) directed by Herz Frank
Klassiki Introduction by Sam Goff: Baltic Poetic Documentary (2025)

Optional viewing for cinemaholics: Pikk Street (1966, directed by Hans Roosipuu); Year of the Dragon (1989, directed by Andres Sööt); The Corridor (1989, directed by Šarūnas Bartas); Bridges of Time (2018, directed by Audrius Stonys & Kristine Briede)

Meeting 5: Long-form documentary (May 11th at 7pm EST)

Youth (Spring) (2023) directed by Wang Bing

Optional viewing for cinemaholics: None, you sickos. Get outside.

Meeting 6: Time, Politics, & the Poetics of Life (May 31st at 7pm EST)

Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004) directed by Lav Diaz

Optional viewing for cinemaholics: None, you sickos. Get outside.

Cost: $35 or $10 with proof of a donation of at least $15 to GR Rapid Response to ICE, Stand With Minnesota, or an equivalent organization combating the administration’s crackdown on immigrants and racial minorities in your community.

Register by sending me an email with your name and just saying hello.

About Me

I am a film and culture writer currently based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My interests include the technical elements of filmmaking & exhibition, slow & digital cinemas, as well as Eastern European film, East Asian, & Middle Eastern film. I am an individually accredited Tomatometer approved critic and a member of the Michigan Movie Critics Guild. My blog on Baltic cinema is the only recurring still-active blog on Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian cinema in English.

I also have a graduate degree in the academic study of religion from Boston University where I studied political theology and religious history (mostly Islamic and Christian).